Micheal Martin
The Ireland government aspires to strengthen its strong economic and cultural ties with India as part of its new Asia Pacific policy, announced Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin this week.
Ireland’s Asia Pacific Strategy set a goal of EUR 100 billion in commerce with the area by 2025, which was met two years early.
“We have a strong economic relationship, but we also have a strong cultural relationship (with India)”, Martin remarked on Tuesday in Dublin.
Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence stated, “We want to deepen that and we’re launching our Asia Pacific strategy to support our continued ambitions to expand across the Asia Pacific, which will fuel economic growth into the future across the world”.
As a part of their coalition agreement at the end of last year, the Tanaiste, as the Deputy Prime Minister is known in Ireland, swapped roles with the country’s Indian-origin Prime Minister (Taoiseach), Leo Varadkar.
As Minister for Foreign Affairs, he is focussed on implementing the country’s Global Ireland policy, and this week reaffirmed the country’s commitment to the Asia Pacific region within that thread.
Ireland’s new Asia Pacific strategy includes a new Consulate General in Mumbai as part of efforts to strengthen Ireland’s footprint in the region.
In response to a question about the US and UK support for Canada following the recent withdrawal of Canadian diplomats from India, Martin stated that both countries must eventually find the capacity to engage over the issue and work things out.
It came after Canada announced last week that in response to an alleged Indian threat to unilaterally revoke their status amid strained bilateral relations over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s claims that Indian agents were involved in the June murder of Canadian Sikh Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
As a result, the United States and the United Kingdom joined Canada in claiming that the decision jeopardized the efficient operation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) emphatically denied any violation of the Vienna Convention in relation to the diplomats’ exit.
“It would not be for Ireland to arbitrate or mediate between two major countries, they are two friends of Ireland”, Martin continued.
Martin went on to say, “But we believe that India and Canada ultimately will develop the capacity to resolve this. I think it’s in both their interests to do so. It is a challenging issue. But I don’t have any doubt that over time, this will evolve and moderate, and we would like to think that all countries have the capacity to engage and work this out”.
When asked about explicitly pressing issues such as Manipur and Kashmir with India, the minister stated that Ireland views issues through a human rights lens especially as it prepares to be elected to the UN Human Rights Council in a few years.
“It is a fundamental obligation of all states to uphold freedom of expression, freedom of opinion, vision, fundamental rights, identity, and so forth. So, it’s through that lens that we would discuss with other states specific issues”, Martin added.
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